Ever Wonder Why Weapons Contracts Are So Complicated?

[longknife]

by Mark Thompson @ the Battleland Blog gives us this.

If so, you won’t once you check out the specifications for Air Force ceremonial swords.

These are the beautiful swords that cadets at the Air Force Academy get (paid for with about $300 of their own money, deducted from their cadet pay) when they graduate (you can buy one too, here, for $355).

They may merely be ceremonial, but the testing they have to undergo offers some sense as to just how demanding the testing is for real weapons – like fighters, bombers and drones.

According to a recent contract solicitation by the academy for 724 of the swords, mostly silver but some gold “in appearance” for class standouts, the swords must be machined to precise tolerances, and meet the following standards:

Read more, along with interesting graphics @ Ever Wonder Why Weapons Contracts Are So Complicated? | TIME.com

 

[head of joaquin]

Maybe this explains why the Department of Defense has never been audited and cannot provide records that meet GAAP. It's a rogue outfit.

 

[Unitedwestand13]

And I thought contracts were award to the people with the best design, not the most goodies

 

[WhyNotWhyNot]

This is a case of ridiculousness that highlights a big problem that we brought on ourselves. If a government procured item fails due to a flaw, we get evening news investigative reporting and congressional hearings accusing the responsible government agency of lackadaisical procurement control, engineering, or quality control practices. The government agency’s defensive response is massive detailed specifications. Then we ridicule the agency for paying the cost created by the extra contract management, engineering, and testing labor needed to comply with the specifications and procurement regulations imposed on the suppliers. The sad thing is that these extra controls often create more errors than they mitigate.

 

[AliHajiSheik]

Maybe this explains why the Department of Defense has never been audited and cannot provide records that meet GAAP. It's a rogue outfit.

Our military is the largest in the world by far, everything is perfect with it.

(isn't that how you do it by talking about how something is so big that everything else doesn't matter?)

 

[American]

Our military is the largest in the world by far, everything is perfect with it.

(isn't that how you do it by talking about how something is so big that everything else doesn't matter?)

No one I know thinks the DoD is perfect within. That's total bull****, sounds like you don't real know anything about the DoD.

 

[AliHajiSheik]

No one I know thinks the DoD is perfect within. That's total bull****, sounds like you don't real know anything about the DoD.

Typical right wing meme. Our Military spends more than 5 times what the next country spends on salary and benefits and a mere 4.7% of GDP which is well in line with what the President promised. The greatest power in the history of mankind. I think history shows that it is money well spent.

(HoJ, you the man!)

 

[American]

Typical right wing meme. Our Military spends more than 5 times what the next country spends on salary and benefits and a mere 4.7% of GDP which is well in line with what the President promised. The greatest power in the history of mankind. I think history shows that it is money well spent.

(HoJ, you the man!)

What are you talking about? HoJ? He doesn't know the first thing about anything.